There are plenty of cast iron street heads critical.
A fine stone finish or 60 grit
to choose from but the Vortec is our
best, least expensive way to get a good
head that is readily available from many
sources; new or used. Any GM dealer,
car supplier, local junk yard, swap meet,
eBay, or your buddy that just took them
off his car can supply yours.
The advantage of the Vortec is high
GM
velocity intake ports, fast burning 64 CC
combustion chambers, very little clean-up
porting work needed, and price.
Sleeper
The most importiant area of this head
is the throat dimension that drastically
affects the velocity in both intake and
Cylinder exhaust runners. I always like the choice
of small valves and smaller throat
Head
dimensions; 89 to 90% maximum on the
throat dimension to the valve size.
With the installation of larger valves,
because of the intake runner size which
Small
is about 170 CCs, you get into a funnel
effect condition where the valve is too
big and the runner not large enough
Block
to supply the air needed for that larger
valve. This is when a person will install
a 2.02 intake valve and open the throat
Vortec
dimension to 90 or 91% of the valve
size and this kills nearly all the intake
velocity causing a very sluggish throttle
response plus poor low-end horsepower
and torque.
Ported power A smaller valve in a 350 to 368 CI
for performance small block Chevy on the street with a
Vortec head is a 1.940 intake and 1.500
and profit in to 1.600 maximum exhaust valve size.
I only clean up the intake and exhaust
today’s world port runnners. I do not believe in gasket
matching, raising the intake and exhaust
ports really helps the flow; only if there
)@JOE MONDELLO is enough material on the intake and
exhaust, manifolds or headers allows you
to do so.
The valve bowls, intake and exhaust
are the most critical because this includes
the short side radius blending. Be very
careful in these areas; remember no
larger than 89% throat dimension. Do
not lay back the short side radius too
much because this will affect high and
low lift flow numbers dramatically.
The most important area is the throat
dimension right below your last undercut
in the valve bowl (this is the maximum
valve bowl dimension area). I like to
rough in the valve bowls then do the 3 to
5 angle valve job, then finally grind and
blend in the final throat dimension. If
you do not have between .080 and .100
of your 60° or 65° undercut width, you
will be significally effecting your wet flow
dynamics.
The surface finish on street
performance cylinder heads is really not
46 APR-JUN 2010 engine professional
cartridge roll followed with 50 or 60 grit
flapper paper finish is all that is needed.
The exhaust finish I like a little
smoother; 100 or 120 cartridge roll,
then a 120 grit flapper finish. If this is a
quicky, down and dirty job, use a round
nose tree, egg/oval, or flame shaped
carbide cutter; this finish is OK as is. Use
a reverse taper for the short turn.
After shaping the valve bowls with a
carbide cutter, do a fine stone finish on
the valve bowls and short side radii, very
little work around the valve guide bosses
is needed on the Votec head.
If you are getting enough money for
this job, you can reshape and taper the
guide bosses for max air flow. Always
remember when doing any heads, bigger
is not necessarily better in most cases. Air
does not like sharp edges or turns nor
uneven surfaces on port walls and floors.
The sharp edges on the floor of the
combustion chamber just above the top
cut angle which I prefer to be 37° to 39°
instead of the conventional 30° on a 45°
angle primary seat. Fifty years ago using
the Kwik-Way valve grinder with stones,
I used a 33° top cut, 45° primary cut, 57°
under cut; then with a hand-driven Kwik-
Way 70° steel cutter I did my fourth cut
for a better bowl blend. Nobody back
then ever did more than a 45° primary
cut. If it was too wide they would narrow
or sink it with a 30° top cut.
In the late 70s they came out with
a 3 angle racing valve job. My old four
angle stone valve job set nearly every
record in several facets of racing; quarter
mile, dirt and asphalt circle, Bonneville,
road and boat racing. Now with our 4
to 7 angle fixed carbide valve seat cutters
we are really changing the name of high
performance valve jobs to precision wet
flow fine tuned maximum flow dynamic
valve job!
We have come a long way in 50
years through our good old American
research and development to come up
with the great new automatic head
centers, diamond valve guide honing,
carbide guide reamers, ball hones,
bronze guide liners, powder metal and
alloy valve seats not to mention flow
benches and especially our Mondello-cfm
wet flow technology introduced to the
industry in 1999.
On used Vortec heads the question
that comes up is, “Do I need hardened
exhaust seats?” When new they are
induction hardened by heat treating. I
feel this process is good up to about 75
thousand miles. You can test them with
a stone or carbide cutter and usually can
Checking 89%
choke area.

Carbide finish on intake port.

ABOVE: Stone finish on exhaust port before cartridge rolling.

LEFT: Correct way to flapper slick ports, notice how

flapper paper is rolled on stick away from you,
forming an ice cream cone shape.

engine professional APR-JUN 2010 47

 SMALL BLOCK VORTEC
)@JOE MONDELLO
feel if they still have sufficient hardness.
In most cases, I like to replace all used
exhaust seats because of today’s unleaded
fuel.
I am very fussy on these new thin
casting heads and prefer to use a little
shallower seat insert .200 to .215
maximum on these later heads. If you do
any Buick, Olds, or Pontiac from the 60s,
70s, or early 80s, the maximum depth
seat I suggest is .200. I prefer .188 as I
have seen so may rare high-dollar BOP
heads get ruined by non experienced
machinests looking at a seat chart and
putting a .240 to .250 depth seat in the
heads. This totally destroys them and all
you have left is boat anchors.
In the Vortec heads, the intake
runner on the roof around the push tube
turn wall there is a cavity just below
the pressed-in rocker stud. This cavity,
believe it or not, does not affect air flow.
I have filled them and left them alone
and there is no difference in air flow.
The intake bolt pattern on the Vortec
is different than a regular small block
48 APR-JUN 2010 engine professional
Chevy and there are plenty of intake RIGHT: “E” tube in use on
manifold choices out there with tooling intake port wall.
available to re-drill your Vortec heads to
BELOW: Necessary correct
fit the standard 350 small block Chevy tools to be used in redoing
manifolds. A lot of people have a good Vortec and similar SB cast
supply of older manifolds laying around. iron Chevy or Ford heads.
The final thing I want to mention on Notice the rolled flapper
paper shape green tape
new or used manifolds, especially the
is only for photo. Flapper
cheaper priced ones made in third world paper needs to be 5 or 6
countries, is to make sure you check the inches long.
fit of all angles and bolt hole locations. I
have seen some of these manifolds come
twisted so badly it wasn’t funny. I like
Dual Plane and Dual Plane Air Gapped
manifolds along with the GM aluminum
factory manifolds for street use. If you
want to go racing, use an open plenum
style.
Now, the valve job before final
assembly... intake side 45° primary seat
.040 to .050 wide 39° top cut angle, 65°
bottom cut .080 to .100 wide, narrow
65° bottom cut by using a 75° straight
cutter and adjust your throat dimension
to 89% of the intake valve size. On the
exhaust side I like a full radius below
 



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engine professional APR-JUN 2010 49

 SMALL BLOCK VORTEC
)@JOE MONDELLO
the primary 45° seat 1.1 to 1.4 mm 45°
seat width 39° top cut full radius below
45°. To remove any sharp edges below
your seat and adjust your 89% throat
dimension, hand grind it on intake and
exhaust by using a ½ inch diameter
fine tooth (24 count) regular cut round
nose tree carbide cutter on a 2 inch
shank. Some machinests try to use a 90°
straight blade cutter but it digs into the
throat material below the final undercut.
I have designed an 86° cutter that works
well but I myself prefer hand grinding
it. Always set a pair of inside dividers to
89% of your valve size outside diameter
and continually check as you grind your
final throat size.You will have to re-
contour and shape your short side radius.
Good luck with this project. It is well
worth 30 to 50 horsepower over a set
of low performance smog heads. If you
want larger CC runner heads there are
plenty of them available and remember,
when buying your heads make sure the
throat dimensions are not larger than
89 or 90% maximum. If they are bigger


than my recommended max you will not
have good flow numbers and you will
have low velocity after all your work
is done. You are probably wondering
why I haven’t mentioned anything about
aluminum heads. I wanted this article to
cover a great head for a reasonable price
and made an effort to help you prepare
them for great horsepower, torque, and
performance. I will do an article on Joe Mondello has been involved in quality
aliminum heads later. head porting and R&D at a time when
One more thing I need to mention Ed Iskenderian, and a few others started
is heat coatings for iron combustion a high performance industry. Joe has
chambers, valves, piston tops and skirts, been so successful that his tech manual
was given a GM part number. Joe is an
and exhaust ports. You can run ½ point
innovator and educator of the highest
more compression, use 4° to 6° less order. When he could have sat on his
ignition timing and fight detonation by laurels, Joe chose instead to start a Tech
using heat coatings plus pick up more Center in Crossville, Tennessee holding
power and torque.Q classes for any who desire to learn air
flow secrets that took Joe a lifetime to
find out. You may contact Joe at 931-459-
2760 or email joe@mondello.com.

 




 
 

 

 

 
 
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50 APR-JUN 2010 engine professional